It's also politically stupid, since a cigarette tax is an in-your-face, you-know-who-did-it, frequently experienced regressive tax that will alienate many poor smokers (c.f. the excise tax on automobile tires).

I have absolutely no sympathy for cigarette smokers. None whatsoever. It is completely incomprehensible to me that 43 million people are still sucking on cancer sticks, given what we know about the dangers of smoking.

I smoked for 24 years. I was addicted, and I didn't give a rat's ass about the taxes or who was getting the money. I'm sure most smokers feel the same way.

If they don't, they'll quit smoking in protest. Somehow I doubt smokers across America will quit en bloc over being taxed in order to provide health insurance to children.

I wouldn't be surprised to discover that most smokers are low-income, poorly-educated people who don't vote anyway. I'd say Obama has little to worry about from them.

Screamin' - you smoked for 24 years. You would had to have started in 1941 to not read the Surgeon General Warning that smoking is bad for you starting in 1965. I'm assuming you smoked most of those twenty four years fully aware of the danger. Have a little sympathy for yourself.

At some tax point the cost solution for the smoker will be drug lords producing and then distributing smokes tax free. Already an issue where taxes swing wildly state to state. Expect it to be more of an issue as income drops as it is not easy to turn off the nicotine addiction.

It has been noted that the majority of people diagnosed with schizophrenia smoke tobacco. Estimates for the number of schizophrenics that smoke range from 75% to 90%. It was recently argued that the increased level of smoking in schizophrenia may be due to a desire to self-medicate with nicotine.[46][47] More recent research has found the reverse, that it is a risk factor without long-term benefit, used only for its short term effects.[48] All of these studies are based only on observation ...